More Iraqi Army Dead Found in Mosul; 2 Clerics Slain

By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and JAMES GLANZ; Richard A. Oppel Jr. reported from Mosul for this article, and James Glanz from Baghdad. An Iraqi employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Mosul.

Published: November 23, 2004

A leading Sunni cleric was killed in a drive-by shooting in the northern city of Mosul on Monday, and American military officials in the city discovered the bodies of at least four more Iraqi Army soldiers killed by gunshots to the head.

Insurgents are kidnapping and killing Iraqi soldiers and national guardsmen with shocking regularity in Mosul, the third largest city in Iraq and the scene of a ferocious insurgent uprising two weeks ago that followed the American invasion of Falluja.

In the past two days, American forces in Mosul have discovered the bodies of at least 13 members of the Iraqi security forces, and the bodies of 11 more people have been found in that time but not yet identified.

''It's safe to say they are targeting Iraqi security forces with a campaign of threats, intimidation and murder,'' said Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, a military spokesman in Mosul.

Concerns are growing that the campaign is succeeding in part because the insurgents have infiltrated the Iraqi security forces.

The recently deposed police chief in Mosul, Muhammad Kheiri Barhawi, whose force almost entirely deserted when the fighting began two weeks ago, was arrested Sunday by Kurdish forces in the province east of Mosul. A senior officer in the Mosul Police Department said Mr. Barhawi, found in possession of $600,000, was under investigation on suspicion of collaborating with insurgents.

Three national guardsmen in Mosul were detained this week on suspicion of collaborating with insurgents, including one who was found helping insurgents who had set up an illegal checkpoint to identify other Iraqi troops, according to an American military commander here.

Few details were available on Monday about the assassination of Sheik Muhammad Amin al-Faidhi, a member of a leading Sunni clerics association that had called for a boycott of the national parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 30.

In his lectures at Al Hadrah al Muhammadia mosque, Sheik Faidhi urged resistance against the American occupation but did not overtly call for armed conflict, according to an Iraqi who attended several of the lectures.

While there were no prime suspects in the killing, Mosul has long been gripped by violence among religious and ethnic groups that share influence in the city, especially Kurds, and Sunni and Shiite Arabs.

One man who said he had witnessed the attack, Bashar Haseeb, said that the cleric had been shot by men in cars who sped away but that he was still alive after the attack. ''I went out to the street and saw the sheik in his religious costume, lying on the ground bleeding,'' Mr. Haseeb said. The sheik was taken to a hospital, where he died, he said.

In Baghdad on Monday, the American military announced that a soldier had died of wounds sustained during an attack in Baghdad the day before. Another soldier, from the First Cavalry Division, was shot in the head and killed by sniper fire on Monday while his convoy was stopped on the airport road in Baghdad, military officials said.

Fighting in Falluja continued to dwindle, as troops cleared houses in the city, finding three large weapons caches. Two American soldiers were wounded in attacks on Sunday, and one on Monday, with none killed in action, said Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the top Marine commander in Iraq.

Insurgent attacks around the country have fallen sharply -- to about 90 a day from a high of around 150 a day as the battle in Falluja began, according to data compiled by a private security company. The overall trend since January, however, has been continuously upward. In southern Iraq, an attack around 9 a.m. severed the smaller of two pipelines running to the country's main export terminal in the Persian Gulf. ''The fact that there was an explosion indicates that foul play was involved,'' said an official at Iraq Pipeline Watch, which closely tracks the developments.

A spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most powerful Shiite cleric in Iraq, condemned a raid by Iraqi and American forces on a prominent Sunni mosque in Baghdad on Friday that killed at least three Iraqis. The raid, on the Abu Hanifa mosque, may have been an attempt to silence an imam who seemed to be calling for attacks on American and Iraqi security forces.

An improvised bomb was found on a commercial flight within Iraq on Monday, The Associated Press reported, forcing new efforts to screen passengers and baggage at the Baghdad airport. The United States Embassy released a statement cautioning travelers about traveling on commercial airlines in Iraq.

In Falluja, the Iraqi Red Crescent Society brought 17 trucks full of emergency supplies into the city, but found virtually no one to distribute it to, General Sattler said.

The first group of returning residents could be allowed into the city as soon as next week, he said.

Basic services are still unavailable in Falluja, and the valves in the city's main water-treatment plant are still not working. But troops will provide bottled water until the plant and the city's heavily damaged water and sewer pipes can be fixed, the general said.